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robin

noun

Simple meaning

Any of different passerine birds of the families Muscicapidae, Turdidae and Petroicidae, usually with a red breast.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rahbuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹɑbən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Any of various passerine birds (about 100 species) of the families Muscicapidae, Turdidae and Petroicidae (formerly Eopsaltriidae), typically with a red breast.

  2. A European robin, Erithacus rubecula.

  3. An American robin, Turdus migratorius.

  4. A female given name from the Germanic languages, also associated with the bird robin.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any of various passerine birds (about 100 species) of the families Muscicapidae, Turdidae and Petroicidae (formerly Eopsaltriidae), typically with a red breast.

Used this way, robin is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Science
  • Academic writing
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Nearby words

  • redbreast , rarer, so it draws attention
  • robin redbreast , used mainly in Regional English

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use robin

  • “A little robin landed on our bird feeder this morning.”

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: any of various passerine birds (about 100 species) of the families Muscicapidae

redbreastRarerobin redbreastRegional

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.